Health chiefs have hit out at threatened cuts to the region's specialist children's burns services.

Three weeks ago the Chronicle revealed how a shake-up of burns services could lead to Newcastle's paediatric unit being downgraded.

This could mean the most critically ill children being sent to Manchester or Birmingham for care.

The National Burn Care Group says there is not enough demand for the service in our region and that there should be just four main paediatric units nationwide.

But Newcastle Hospitals Trust, which runs the service at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, has challenged the idea and will be discussing the issue at a meeting today.

Responding to the proposals it says there had been "no convincing justification" supported by any evidence of "an improvement in clinical outcomes to offset the many important practical disadvantages of such a remote service".

The move comes as the number of parents of burns victims who are against the proposed downgrading increased.

The latest is Pauline Partridge whose son Mark died after a caravan blaze left him with 96% burns.

He was cared for at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary for three months until he died

A report to today's trust board meeting said: "We are concerned that such a recommendation had been made without any evidence having been provided demonstrating that such a highly centralised service would result in improved clinical outcomes.

"There are obvious and important disadvantages to such centralisation, including the delayed commencement of specialist care.

"These include the increased costs of transfer teams, the dislocation of family support as a consequence of greatly increased distances between home and hospital, and the erosion of the currently very strong relationships between the specialist paediatric burn care service in Newcastle and local hospitals and community services in the region."

The Trust has also challenged the decision to nominate Chelmsford and Swansea as paediatric specialist centres when, unlike Newcastle, neither hospital currently has accredited paediatric intensive care facilities.